The present disclosure relates to: an image forming system in which an image forming apparatus that forms an image on recording paper is connected to a plurality of terminal devices via a network; and the image forming apparatus. Particularly, the present disclosure relates to a technique for assisting a search for recording paper on which an image has been formed and which has been taken away from an image forming apparatus by mistake.
In an image forming system in which an image forming apparatus is connected to a plurality of terminal devices via a network, jobs are sent from the respective terminal devices to the image forming apparatus via the network and successively executed by the image forming apparatus. For example, the image forming apparatus executes as a job, a series of processing by which a print page is printed on recording paper and the recording paper is ejected to an exit tray.
However, a user not always immediately takes away the recording paper from the exit tray. Sometimes, recording paper of a plurality of users is left on the exit tray. In this situation, recording paper on the exit tray may be taken away by a user other than a user by whom the recording paper should be taken away.
Therefore, a traditionally known image forming apparatus stores history information of jobs in storage. When a user by whom recording paper should have been taken away operates an operation panel to display history information of a job executed in accordance with an instruction from the user on a display and designates the job, the image forming apparatus selects jobs each executed before or after the designated job, and sends an inquiry message to terminal devices of those who have given instructions for executing the selected jobs, that is, terminal devices of other users who may have taken away the recording paper by mistake.